Celebs charged with fraud in buying their children’s admission to top colleges

[Monty]

5 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

I disagree that it has "zero credibility" just because the author didn't attach a name to it.

He didn’t say that. What he’s saying is, because Buzzfeed isn’t known for being a reputable news source on any front (left or right), but instead known for producing click bait garbage, their credibility comes into question.

 

Could this article be true? Absolutely. But because Buzzfeed isn’t known for ever being anything more than “You’re cleaning your penis wrong” articles, one can be forgiven for saying they don’t have credibility.

 

5 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

I see.....so I guess it naturally follows that anything on Fox News can be similarly dismissed?

Sure. 

[RUPERTKBD]

Just now, CBH1926 said:

Of course it would, since we could look up to see if this person is who they say they are. Anonymus could be some kid in the basment making this up. Kind of like hockeybuzz. 

You make it sound like I set out to make a point and posted an article to bolster it, but the reality is, I saw an article on the Firefox main page and thought it made some interesting points.

 

But since you and Monty are more concerned with discrediting the source, rather than the substance, here are a couple of corroborating articles from different outlets:

 

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/the-most-extreme-example-former-college-admissions-officer-breaks-down-bribery-scandal-201408470.html

 

Quote

 

According to Ed Boland, a former Yale University admissions officer and author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Battle for Room 314,” the admissions process has never been fair, but this scandal takes it to a new level.

"The playing field has never been level, but this is the most extreme example of the lengths people are willing to go,” Boland tells Yahoo Finance. "There will always be bad apples in this process; there will always be people willing to lie, cheat and steal in the process, because the stakes are high.”

 

Quote

“So many people get absolutely furious about affirmative action against racial minorities, but there are more students who benefit from being children of alumni or student athletes than there are benefiting from affirmative action," he says.

Boland says he was never bribed or heard of this happening in his time as an admissions officer. But the admissions process has always been fraught, he says.

"I've been working in the college admissions business for the last 20-plus years, and one thing that I've learned is that the system isn't fair and never will be fair.”

 

https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a26801977/admissions-counselor-interview-college-exam-scam/

 

Quote

"I wasn't even a little bit shocked," says Toor. "This has been going on forever. The one percent has always had an advantage, and part of what you get when you go to these schools is contact with those kinds of people. But these parents really aren't helping their kids in the long run, they're just not."

 

[RUPERTKBD]

5 minutes ago, Monty said:

He didn’t say that. What he’s saying is, because Buzzfeed isn’t known for being a reputable news source on any front (left or right), but instead known for producing click bait garbage, their credibility comes into question.

 

Could this article be true? Absolutely. But because Buzzfeed isn’t known for ever being anything more than “You’re cleaning your penis wrong” articles, one can be forgiven for saying they don’t have credibility.

Or maybe, since he was pontificating on "checking facts" he could have done just that, (as I did) rather than dismissing it out of hand.

[Monty]

Just now, RUPERTKBD said:

Or maybe, since he was pontificating on "checking facts" he could have done just that, (as I did) rather than dismissing it out of hand.

Sure.

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

Or maybe, since he was pontificating on "checking facts" he could have done just that, (as I did) rather than dismissing it out of hand.

I accept the admission process is not fair.  However, once the student is in classes, don’t they need to perform academically?  If those same students are somehow cheating their way through classes too, then don’t they have to perform when they start to work in the field from which they graduate?

i guess my point is: at some point those students who’s parents get them admitted in a sneaky way must perform.  Sooner or later those who cheated to get in will need to pay the piper, no?  

[RUPERTKBD]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

I accept the admission process is not fair.  However, once the student is in classes, don’t they need to perform academically?  If those same students are somehow cheating their way through classes too, then don’t they have to perform when they start to work in the field from which they graduate?

i guess my point is: at some point those students who’s parents get them admitted in a sneaky way must perform.  Sooner or later those who cheated to get in will need to pay the piper, no?  

Sure. But that doesn't help the students who weren't accepted in the first place. They're off somewhere getting a second rate college education, or not getting one at all.

[CBH1926]

12 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

Or maybe, since he was pontificating on "checking facts" he could have done just that, (as I did) rather than dismissing it out of hand.

Or you could have done that in the first place and save yourself from pontificating.

[Alflives]

8 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

Sure. But that doesn't help the students who weren't accepted in the first place. They're off somewhere getting a second rate college education, or not getting one at all.

I agree.  However, the parents who are cheating to get their kids into these elite schools, are not helping their kids.  Sooner or later those kids will need to perform.  

[RUPERTKBD]

11 minutes ago, CBH1926 said:

Or you could have done that in the first place and save yourself from pontificating.

I saw no need to. I was more interested in the content of the article, rather than dismissing it outright just because the author didn't put her name on it.

 

I leave that sort of thing to the "Fake News!" crowd.

[RUPERTKBD]

9 minutes ago, Alflives said:

I agree.  However, the parents who are cheating to get their kids into these elite schools, are not helping their kids.  Sooner or later those kids will need to perform.  

Agreed. However, by trying to help their own kids, they are hurting others, which was the gist of my original post.

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, RUPERTKBD said:

Agreed. However, by trying to help their own kids, they are hurting others, which was the gist of my original post.

Yup.  Selfish buggers and crappy parents for sure.  

[CBH1926]

15 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

I saw no need to. I was more interested in the content of the article, rather than dismissing it outright just because the author didn't put her name on it.

 

I leave that sort of thing to the "Fake News!" crowd.

These so called anonymus sources from fringe websites are exactly the type of news "fake news" crowd eats up!

To each his own, i guess.

 

 

[RUPERTKBD]

16 minutes ago, CBH1926 said:

These so called anonymus sources from fringe websites are exactly the type of news "fake news" crowd eats up!

To each his own, i guess.

 

 

I guess. Personally, I find shouting "Fake News!" kind of lazy. If someone can find a credible argument against what is being posted, they should go ahead and post it. Just trying to shoot it down, without even "checking facts" as you said one should do, is pretty hypocritical.

[Gnarcore]

1 hour ago, Monty said:

He didn’t say that. What he’s saying is, because Buzzfeed isn’t known for being a reputable news source on any front (left or right), but instead known for producing click bait garbage, their credibility comes into question.

 

Could this article be true? Absolutely. But because Buzzfeed isn’t known for ever being anything more than “You’re cleaning your penis wrong” articles, one can be forgiven for saying they don’t have credibility.

 

Sure. 

Wait...there is a wrong way to do it?  

[Monty]

1 minute ago, Gnarcore said:

Wait...there is a wrong way to do it?  

Thankfully because of Buzzfeed, we can now be taught the proper way, while also seeing if our cat is a wizard 

[CBH1926]

1 hour ago, RUPERTKBD said:

I guess. Personally, I find shouting "Fake News!" kind of lazy. If someone can find a credible argument against what is being posted, they should go ahead and post it. Just trying to shoot it down, without even "checking facts" as you said one should do, is pretty hypocritical.

Honestly, more often then not, when someone links breitbart, infowars, daily kos etc. I look at it as an attempt to rile people up and troll like harvey used to do. Not worth engaging in a debate with such person. They are either too lazy to find credible sources or too dumb since they belive in this crap.

[RUPERTKBD]

1 hour ago, CBH1926 said:

Honestly, more often then not, when someone links breitbart, infowars, daily kos etc. I look at it as an attempt to rile people up and troll like harvey used to do. Not worth engaging in a debate with such person. They are either too lazy to find credible sources or too dumb since they belive in this crap.

So your opinion is that I was "trolling"?

 

I wasn't, but fair enough. No point on debating with you, if that's the case.

[CBH1926]

26 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

So your opinion is that I was "trolling"?

 

I wasn't, but fair enough. No point on debating with you, if that's the case.

Come on, of course i know that you were not doing that. 

[nuckin_futz]

Felicity Huffman gets 14 days in prison in college cheating scandal

The actress pleaded guilty in May to paying $15,000 to have her daughter's SAT scores boosted.

 

BOSTON — Actress Felicity Huffman, one of the biggest name caught up in a college-admissions scandal that rocked elite universities around the country, was sentenced to 14 days behind bars on Friday for her role in the sweeping scam.

 

"I am deeply sorry to the students, schools, and universities, that are impacted by my actions," Huffman said while chocking up as she read a prepared statement.

 

The one-time Oscar nominee, who came to court holding hands with her actor husband, William H. Macy, will also have to pay a fine of $30,000 and perform 250 hours of community service under the sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani.

 

Huffman, 56, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and honest services fraud in May for paying $15,000 to college fixer Rick Singer to cheat on daughter Sophia Grace Macy's SAT in 2017.

 

"I am so sorry Sophia," she said. "I was frightened. I was stupid and I was so wrong. I am deeply ashamed of what I have done."

 

Huffman paid for someone to proctor and correct Sophia’s test and correct it, which resulted in her score jumping 400 points above her PSAT performance to 1420 out of a possible 1600.

 

She was the first parent to be sentenced in the scheme.

 

Prosecutors had wanted Huffman to spend a month in prison, to go along with supervised release and a $20,000 fine.

"Most parents have the moral compass not to lie but the defendant did not," prosecutor Eric Rosen said to Talwani at Friday's sentencing. "This was not a blunder or a mistake. This was intentional criminal conduct that took place over 16 months."

 

"In prison, there is no paparazzi. Everyone is the same, everyone wears the same clothes," Rosen said while praising her skills as an actress and ability to find future work. "Prison is the ultimate leveler."

 

Defense lawyers insisted their client's crimes did not merit incarceration, and their argument appeared to get a boost this week when a U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services report found that there was "no victim" or any "actual or intended loss" in Huffman's SAT scam.

 

"She knew what she did was wrong and her moral compass allowed her to realize that," Huffman's lawyer, Martin Murphy, told the judge on Friday. He noted that Huffman's daughter is not going to any school next year.

 

Probation officials said the government was incorrect in setting Huffman’s sentencing range at four to nine months because the amount of money she paid should not be a factor in her sentencing. Huffman should instead be subject to the lowest sentencing guidelines of zero prison time to six months, according to the probation report.

 

The mere fact that prosecutors asked for such little prison time showed that Huffman appeared to be in good position to avoid time behind bars, NBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos said.

 

Huffman's sentence to prison time was also surprising, in comparison to Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer, who in the same court got only probation when he faced a sentencing-guidelines range of 33 to 41 months behind bars.

"Federal courts are under obligation to avoid `unwarranted sentencing disparities,'" Cevallos said. "A sentence of incarceration for Felicity Huffman sure seems like an unwarranted sentencing disparity."

 

Huffman, best known for the TV series "Desperate Housewives" and her Oscar-nominated work in "Transamerica," is the most famous of of 50 people charged in the sweeping college entrance cheating scheme.

 

The FBI probe, dubbed "Operation Varsity Blues" revealed how well-heeled parents paid Singer to get their children into elite universities by boosting their college board test scores or passing them off as top athletes worthy of special admission.

 

Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have also been charged.

Prominent U.S. universities involved in Singer's scheme included Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and the University of Southern California.

 

In a letter to the judge last week, Huffman admitted to making bad choices because she was worried that her daughter's learning disabilities would hamper the young lady's future.

 

Huffman's husband, Macy, was not charged in "Operation Varsity Blues."

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/felicity-huffman-gets-14-days-prison-college-cheating-scandal-n1054106

 

**********************************

 

2 weeks in the big house. Her financial involvement was $15,000 and she co-operated after getting busted. I wonder what 'Aunt Becky' will get? She was in for $500,000 and has fought this all the way.

Edited September 13, 2019 by nuckin_futz

[SabreFan1]

58 minutes ago, nuckin_futz said:

2 weeks in the big house. Her financial involvement was $15,000 and she co-operated after getting busted. I wonder what 'Aunt Becky' will get? She was in for $500,000 and has fought this all the way.